Inspire Award Scheme
(a) the details of S&T Institutional and Human Capacity Scheme currently running in the country;
(b) the details of new and ongoing institutions working for promotion in the fields of research and scientific excellence along with the benefits under these schemes;
(c) the total number of school students from VI to X to be enrolled for Inspire Award scheme; and
(d) the total number of student scholarships for higher education to be provided for pursuing bachelor and master level education and the details thereof?
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
LOK SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO: 1993 ANSWERED ON: 07.03.2018
Inspire Award Scheme
R.P. MARUTHARAJAA
Will the Minister of SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:-
(a) the details of S&T Institutional and Human Capacity Scheme currently running in the country;
(b) the details of new and ongoing institutions working for promotion in the fields of research and scientific excellence along with the benefits under these schemes;
(c) the total number of school students from VI to X to be enrolled for Inspire Award scheme; and
(d) the total number of student scholarships for higher education to be provided for pursuing bachelor and master level education and the details thereof?
ANSWER
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES
(SHRI Y.S. CHOWDHARY)
(a) S&T Institutional and Human Capacity Building Scheme is an umbrella scheme covering host of other sub-schemes, implemented by the Department of Science & Technology, designed with a view to create rightful S&T Institutions and trained manpower in order to strengthen and expand Research & Development base in the country. The details of programs/sub-schemes under this umbrella scheme are as follows:-
1. INSPIRE Program: The Department of Science & Technology (DST) is implementing a national program Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) for attracting talented young students to study Science and pursue career in Research. INSPIRE Program covers students in the age group 10-32 years. It has five components spread over in three major schemes. These are:
i. Scheme for Early Attraction of Talents for Science (SEATS) – INSPIRE Award and INSPIRE Internship,
ii. Scholarship for Higher Education (SHE) – INSPIRE Scholarship, and
iii. Assured Opportunity for Research Careers (AORC) – INSPIRE Fellowship and INSPIRE Faculty Awards.
The first component i.e. INSPIRE Award MANAK ( Million Minds Augmenting National Aspiration and Knowledge) scheme, previously known as INSPIRE Award Scheme, is being implemented through State and UT governments with an objective (i) to attract young students to study science and pursue research career (ii) to promote creative thinking and foster a culture of innovation among them. Under INSPIRE Award MANAK scheme, in a financial year, ten (10.0) lakh ideas are being targeted from more than five (05) lakh middle and high schools across the country, out of which one (1.0) lakh ideas are to be shortlisted for an initial award of Rs. 10000/- each, for preparation of project/model/showcasing of idea and participation in the District Level Exhibition & Project Competition (DLEPC).
INSPIRE Internship arranges Science Camps for about 50,000 youths ( 16-17 years) to provide opportunities for Class XI science students who are within top 1% of Class X board examinations to interact with leading researchers and scientists including Nobel Laureates for experiencing the joy of innovations on annual basis.
Scholarship for Higher Education (SHE) provides 12,000 scholarships every year @ Rs 0.80 lakh per year for undertaking Bachelor and Masters level education in natural and basic sciences for the talented youth in the age group 17-22 years.
Opportunity for Research Careers aims to attract, retain and nourish talented students for strengthening the R&D base. It has two sub-components. INSPIRE Fellowship (age group of 22-27 years) offers 1000 INSPIRE Fellowships every year, for carrying out doctoral degree in both basic and applied sciences including engineering, agriculture, veterinary & medicine. INSPIRE Faculty Scheme, the second component of Opportunity for Research Careers offers assured opportunity every year for 200 in the age group of 27-32 years,
2. Scheme for Young Scientists and Technologists (SYST): Under the Scheme for Young Scientists and Technologists (SYST), Department of Science and Technology (DST) nurtures young scientists and technologists to take up Science & Technology (S&T) based projects of societal relevance with lab-to-land approach. The beneficiaries are given budgetary support up to Rs.40 lakhs in project mode for up to 3 years. The scheme also supports young researchers employed in R&D institutions/Universities/Colleges with a budgetary support not exceeding Rs.30 lakhs.
3. Swarna Jayanti Fellowships Scheme: Under this scheme a selected number of young scientists under 40 years of age with excellent track record, are provided special assistance and support to enable them to pursue research in frontier areas of science and technology. The fellowship is scientist specific and not institution specific, very selective and has close academic monitoring.
The support covers all the requirements for performing the research and includes a fellowship of Rs. 25,000/- per month for five years.
4. Schemes under SCIENCE ENGINEERING RESEARCH BOARD (SERB): The Science and Engineering Research Board, a Statutory body of the Department of Science and Technology has running some significant schemes and programmes to build human capacity and thereby accelerating the pace of progress in the field of scientific research and development in the country. Substantial funding has been provided to potential scientists through Extra Mural Research Funding Schemes like Core Research Grant (CRG) and Start-Up Grant for Young Scientists in the form of Early Career Research Award and National Postdoctoral Fellowship. A number research fellowships (JC Bose & Ramanujan) have been awarded to practicing scientists to enhance the research capability of the country. Empowerment and Equity Opportunities for Excellence in Science Scheme of the Board is a special scheme to ensure enhanced participation of weaker sections of the society in research and development.
5. DST FIST Program: FIST is a complimentary support for the R&D project received by an individual researcher. The Programme is operated at three levels i.e. Level -0, Level-I & Level-II for six (06) Subject Areas i.e. Life, Physical, Chemical, Engineering, Earth & Atmospheric, Mathematical Sciences and Post Graduate Colleges. The Programme covers all sectors of Science & Technology Departments including Agriculture, Veterinary, Pharmacy and Medical having Post-graduate teaching & research program of 3 years in existence.
DST PURSE Program: PURSE program aims to promote value added proactive measures through introduction of R&D Incentive Grant. It provides substantive research grant to universities based on scientific publications in Science Citation Indexed Journals through SCOPUS Database. PURSE Scheme has provided a triggering mechanism for promoting publication oriented research in the University sector deploying evidence based approaches. There has been significant increase in R & D outputs in PURSE supported Universities.
DST SAIF Program: The Department of Science & Technology has set up Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facilities (SAIFs) in different parts of the country to provide the facilities of sophisticated analytical instruments to the researchers in general, and specially from the institutions that do not have such high end instrumentation facilities, to enable them to pursue R&D activities and keep pace with developments taking place globally. The instrument facilities at the SAIFs are accessible to all the users irrespective of whether they belong to the host institutes or are from outside the host institutes and are being used extensively by the researchers from all parts of the country.
(b The details of new and ongoing institutions supported under various S&T Institutional and Human Capacity Building programs and schemes of the Department of Science & Technology and working for promotion in the fields of research and scientific excellence are as under:-
During the last 04 years, more than 980 Departments (including more than 200 PG Colleges) have received FIST support. Under PURSE Program 50 Universities at different locations of the country are being supported. At present there are 18 Nos. Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facilities (SAIFs) being supported by DST.
(c) Under INSPIRE Award MANAK scheme, in a financial year, 10.0 (ten) lakh students, studying in class VI to X, from more than five lakh middle and high schools in the country are being targeted, out of which 1.0 (One) lakh students are to shortlisted for an INSPIRE Award of RS. 10,000/- each. The award money is being transferred directly into the bank account of the students through Direct Benefit Transfer mode.
(d) Scholarship for higher education for pursuing bachelor and master level education is being provided under SHE scheme of INSPIRE Program. The scheme aims to enhance rates of Attachment of talented youth to undertake higher education in science intensive programmes by providing scholarships and mentoring through summer attachment to performing researchers. The scheme would offer 12,000 scholarships every year @ Rs 0.80 lakh per year for undertaking Bachelor and Masters level education in natural and basic sciences for the talented youth in the age group 17-22 years.
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Source: Loksabha
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